DVD+U
Thursday, October 29, 2009
John Leguizamo provides the voice for Sid, who steals and tries to hatch dinosaur eggs in “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
20th Century Fox, DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99
This is the third and barely-more-than-middling-funny installment in the series of animated features about the prehistoric adventures of Manny (voice of Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo), a woolly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger and ground sloth stuck in a snow-bound world. Simon Pegg makes a nice acerbic addition to the cast as Buck, a one-eyed weasel who carries a sharpened dino tooth for a dagger and acts as a guide when our heroes discover a tropical world of dinosaurs under all that ice. But the movie feels manufactured, a product not of evolution — or even intelligent design — but of cynical, soulless opportunism.
“Nothing Like the Holidays”
Anchor Bay Entertainment, DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.98
Lifting several pages from the Tyler Perry playbook, the film tells a familiar story of a Puerto Rican American family in Chicago that sorts out domestic problems over Christmas. Anna (Elizabeth Pena) and Edy Rodriguez (Alfred Molina) are ready to welcome their three grown children home. Jesse (Freddy Rodriguez) is coming back from a tour of duty in Iraq. Mauricio (John Leguizamo) and his wife, Sarah (Debra Messing), are in from their high-powered New York jobs. Rox (Vanessa Ferlito) is a struggling actress in Los Angeles. The script by Rick Najera and Alison Swan is unfocused and flabby with several relatively pointless scenes that are ended by convenient cellphone calls. The ensemble cast boasts some of the finest actors in the business. They do their best to breathe life into the stereotypes, but they don’t have enough to work with.
“Orphan”
Warner Home Video, DVD $28.98, Blu-ray $35.99
It’s hard to know where to begin when assessing the depraved, worthless piece of filth that is this high-gloss horror show about a well-meaning couple who bring home a 9-year-old girl to join their family, only to discover that she’s a homicidal psychopath. Surely writers David Leslie Johnson and Alex Mace deserve their own circle of hell for thinking up the story, which moves with breathtaking cynicism from disturbing to grotesque to perverse to ludicrous. Both Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga are apparently in desperate need of a paycheck — otherwise how to explain lending their considerable talents to such rank exploitation?
“Whatever Works”
Sony, DVD $27.96, Blu-ray $39.95
This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Woody Allen at his most misanthropically one-note. Larry David plays Allen’s alter ego as a grumpy, growling Boris Yellnikoff, a self-described genius who has been living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side since trying to escape his first wife by jumping out a window. One night he finds a runaway named Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood), who has fled her life in Mississippi and takes up residence in Boris’ loft. Eventually, Melodie’s painfully stereotyped evangelical parents arrive on the scene, played by Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr. with as much dignity as they can muster. With its preposterous, self-serving climax, the film plays like a warped summation of Allen’s tortured relationship with women.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, Feb. 8
Douglas County Commission
Waterville Courthouse, 9 a.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 8
Leavenworth Summer Theater Audition Registration
Leavenworth, 9 a.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 8
North Central Regional Transportation Planning Organization
Chelan City Hall, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 8
WVC Hepcats Swing Dance Classes
Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center, 7 p.m.



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